Bargaining Update: What’s Important?

IAPE and Dow Jones representatives met Wednesday morning for a brief, post-holiday session of contract negotiations. IAPE presented its second set of proposals, a document addressing “additional issues” referenced in the union’s June 13 presentation.

The union’s proposals seemed to frustrate management. While they pledged to review yesterday’s IAPE document and provide fulsome responses, Dow Jones representatives complained the additional proposals added on to an already large docket of bargaining proposals. They signaled that IAPE should “start thinking of what is important” in negotiating a new agreement.

The latest IAPE proposal calls for strict monitoring of air quality at Dow Jones office locations, enhancements to the existing Nondiscrimination section of the collective agreement, and changes to introductory pay tiers for several job titles.

Management recognized the significance of topics such as DEI, anti-harassment, and the health and safety of employees, but also suggested that the sentiment of these union proposals was already addressed “on a corporate level”. We would love to trust management, but we have been down this road before. Despite previous IAPE calls for a more diverse workforce, we continue to see disparities when Dow Jones pay practices are analyzed.

We make no apologies for presenting proposals intended to provide certainty, clarity and a requirement to negotiate changes to terms and conditions of employment. This is true whether we are discussing DEI, health and safety, or contractual protections against changes to health insurance and other employee benefits.

Negotiated contract guarantees matter.  Being able to point to hard-won provisions in a collective agreement to know exactly what we are—or are not—entitled to is exactly what is important to this union.

IAPE and Dow Jones will return to the bargaining table next Thursday, July 13. In the meantime, we would love to know what you think of these contract proposals. Send all feedback to union@iape1096.org.